RHS wrestlers drop dual meet

The final dual-meet score was lopsided in the favor of the Waynesville High School wrestling team over the Rolla Bulldogs Thursday night.

However, that score was a bit deceiving.

Rolla gave the Tigers more of a tussle than the 58-9 final indicated.

It was Waynesville's home opener. The Tigers, a state power in Missouri Class 4 the past several years, improve to 6-2 in dual-meet competition.Rolla wins came from Carter Daniels in the 120-pound weight class, Tyler Lambeth at 138 and Gage Maxwell at 145.

In addition, several of the Bulldog wrestlers competed well before falling, in particular John Sprow.

Sprow, who is ranked No. 8 in the latest Missouri Class 3 state rankings at the 152-pound weight class, was clipped by Waynesville's Aseante Taylor 1-0 on Thursday.

Rolla's other state-ranked wrestler, Daniels, held on to win a 3-2 overtime thriller over Julian Burnham. Daniels, ranked No. 6 at 120 in the Class 3 poll, got the winning point on a third caution against Burnham in the final overtime session.

The Tigers had three wrestlers ranked in the state at Class 4 who competed Thursday - Jacob Semple No. 1 at heavyweight, Charles McNeal No. 4 at 120 and Isaiah Johnson at 126. A fourth, Joseph Bradford, who is ranked No. 3 at 195, did not compete Thursday.

"There were a lot of close matches," said RHS head coach Mark Sells. "We didn't match up well against them, in that some of our pretty good guys matched up against their very good guys. Our 182-pounder (Austyn Harmount) was out and at 160 (Seth) Veatch is still out."

Rolla was open in three weight classes. Billy Brookshire was going to compete at 160 but during pre-meet warmups suffered an eye injury.